Portal
by FreyaHamilton
Summary: What happens when two girls are teleported into the world of Kingdom Hearts? And who is this mysterious Kiru? Ok, so maybe he's not mysterious, but he's new!
1. Kingdom hearts

Portal

By: Garnet311

"GO! GO!" My cousin shrieked, bouncing up and down as I attempted to guide Sora, unsuccessfully, through the race at Destiny Islands. For the 33rd time, Riku won.

"I can't believe this." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest and refusing to pick the controller back up. I stuck my nose in the air as she glared at me, and picked up the controller herself. It would be the eleventh time she'd loose.

"How can you not -win- this thing!" She growled as she hit the star tree a couple flowers after Riku. I shrugged, leaning back. I figured there simply must've been some secret way, and that we'd found the ultimate secret way jackpot. There was no way we were gonna win. We probably should've stopped trying, but we didn't. Maybe we thought we'd get a prize for loosing the most times in the world? One leg popped into the air as I leaned a little too far back, and the back of my head hit the floor. My cousin glanced over at me, and laughed. "Aw, c'mon Selene, get up.." She cooed, yanking at my arm.

I stubbornly stayed on the floor, crossing my arms behind my head for a pillow. "Pay attention, Kristi, you're running into a wall..." Kristi, my cousin, looked up to the TV, and frowned. I hadn't lied. She turned Sora, and guided him toward the end of the race, already knowing she'd lost.

"I think we should give up." She stated clearly, glancing down at me, "I mean, how can we possibly -win- this thing? It's rigged!" Her face formed a frown as I laughed at her, and shook my head.

"If you like, Kris."

It was the first day of the second week my cousin had spent with us. Traditionally she spent two weeks out of every summer with us, but this time the plans had changed, and she meant to stay for a full month. She was, for the most part, responsible for making her own travelling plans, as the group decission was that adults were far to incompetant to do it on their own, and stuck her parents with simply paying the air fare, which, for the most part, were given to her grandparents under the claim that her parents couldn't afford it. Her double visit to Connecticut was paid at the expense of her visit to Tennessee, where yet another cousin normally would have awaited, had she not decided to throw a fit and inform her that there was no way in hell she was allowed in her household again.

All the more fun for us.

Over our time together we had visited a couple parks, a carnival that decided to come into town at the exact right moment, two ice creameries, the entire neighborhood, and the local wall-mart. For the remainder of her stay we were going to play Kingdom Hearts- a game I had already completed, but thought that Kristi would find interesting if not enjoyable.

I had been right. Though generally she spent most of her time walking around outside and finding secret hiding places to retreat to when the world around us went insane, there was something about the reality of Kingdom Hearts that appealed to the both of us. I think, with Kristi, it was just the general lifestyle of the kids on destiny Island that thrilled her... the thought of having all day every day to do whatever the hell we wanted without her parents bumping in. For me there were two things that drew me to Kingdom Hearts... Riku, and the thought that normal teenagers could become something more.

I didn't expect what came next.

Chapter One

I don't know when we fell asleep, but the first thing my senses picked up was warm, bubbly water covering my body, toes first. The second thing I registered was the smell of the sea... salt water, and sand. Next were voices.

"Who do you think they are?" a male asked quietly, obviously trying to keep his low pitched voice down.

"I don't know." A similar voice responded, but louder.

"Be quiet!" The first scolded, and I heard a girl, and a third boy giggling.

'Boys giggle?' I thought vaguely.

"Oh c'mon.. look, that one's awake!" As I tried to move my legs, I cried out, feeling as if each muscle was pulling apart with every movement I took. I opened my eyes, and my head pounded. I was seeing double. And I was delirious. There seemed to be two Riku's staring down at me.

No... they were a little different. Where the original Riku's hair was blue based, the second Riku's hair was red based, and where the original Riku's eyes were a bright, entrancing blue, the second Riku's were a vibrant green, far livelier than the Riku I knew. I gagged, and rolled onto my stomach, watching about a gallon of salt water hit the sand.

"Check the other one!" The only girl's voice ordered, and I looked up toward her. I took in the rotating image of a girl, about a year younger than I, with short red hair, and a pink and white tank top. Her blue eyes smiled regardless of the worried expression on her face. "I told you to check them!"

"Aw, C'mon Kairi!" I looked over as the world began to stop rotating sitting there calmly was none other than Sora. Many fanfiction writers were not mistaken to portray his hair as gravity defying, and vaguely I wondered how quickly he went through hair spray.

Finally, her words registered to me. "Kristi!" I cried, struggling to get up as my body faught against me. As Sora lept up to hold me back, I stared at my cousin. It was her.. but it wasn't her... she was different.. I was getting scared.

Her short auburn hair (which wasn't unlike Kairi's) came to her waist now, and had changed its color altogether. It was now a vivid purple, matched only by the vivid purple of her long eyelashes. Her waist was now smaller than mine had been in the real world, and instead of her general tee shirt and loose jeans was a white short sleeved shirt with a purple butterfly that spread across the front, its wings wrapping around to her back. The normal circle neck seemed to have been cut in the middle, maybe two inches, and tied together again by purple leather. Her pants were made of a thin denim material that had been died purple to match the shirt and hair. They came to her knees, and ended with pieces of string dangling for half an inch. A white design was imprinted on the sides of her legs, where triangles were cut into the bottoms to allow movement. Judging by the general attire, I guessed that her eyes had turned violet as well.

"Calm down." the original Riku hissed, glancing back at me for a moment as he and the second Riku flipped my cousin over. It wasn't long before she went through the same recouperating progress I had, and had spit up the same amount of water, though, now that it wasn't coming out of MY mouth it wasn't as much as I thought it had been.

After screaming and cussing our saviors out, Kristi finally got around to staring at me as if I had turned into a house elf. I could tell that I had undergone as many transformations as she did, and looked at the sand.

"Who are you two?" Kairi asked kindly, coming off of the log she'd been watching from to sit down with us. "We just got out of our boats this morning and saw you guys lying here in the sand. We were worried." She smiled, and tilted her head. She reminded me of a sunrise, pretty, bright. The kinds of things people don't mind waking up early for, even if I wasn't that kind of a person.

"I'm Selene," I stated, and motioned to my cousin, "And this is my cousin, Kristi."

Sora nodded. "I thought you were related somehow!" he exclaimed, "I'm Sora, and that there's Kairi." He motioned to the double Riku's, "And that's Riku, and Kiru."

"Kiru?" Kristi repeated, blinking. Apparently her thoughts had traveled the same track mine had. She realized that we'd somehow found our way onto destiny islands, but there was no Kiru in the game... Kiru looked over at her, and smiled broadly.

"Yes'm!"

Kristi smiled back, and Riku rolled his eyes. "Right." He stated vaguely, "Lets go look for the stuff. These guys can take care of themself from here."

"Can we help?" I asked instantly, remembering where all the stuff for the raft was.

Sora and Kiru looked at each other, and then at Kairi, and finally at Riku. "Naw," Sora muttered quietly, studying the sand, "You guys are new. No point in making you work."

"But I know where the stuff is." Kristi stated, "You're making a raft, right? There's a rope up in the building thing, and the coconuts are in the trees, you just have to hit them until they fall."

I found my way abruptly to my feet as in an instant Riku's hand had found its way around her neck, his aqua eyes staring dead into hers. "How did you know that?" He snarled. Kiru and I found teamwork helpful as we pried him off of her. I added the extra touch of throwing him into the sand, glaring fiercely at him as I stood between him and my cousin.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!" I roared, my trademark 'short temper' coming into play as he scrambled back to his feet, looking somewhat disbelieving that I had managed to throw him to the ground.

"Wow... she's as violent as Riku is." Sora whispered to Kairi, who giggled.

"Selene, calm down!" Kristi cried, but it was no use, I was already on a rampage.

"You have absolutely no rightNo RIGHT" I'd forgotten that I was talking to the soon-to-be king of the heartless, "What the hell makes you think that you can just take matters into your own hands? Handling things however the hell you want!" I knew I must've looked like a maniac in front of the person I'd been obsessed with through the first playing, and beginning of the second playing, of the game. I didn't care. "How DARE you pur your hands on my cousin!" I was moving towards him now, with every intention to strike out.

Thankfully, Kiru stepped between us, putting a hand on the calm Riku's shoulder just in case, and his other hand on my shoulder, pushing me back and holding me back as Kristi cooperated to grab my arms, holding me back.

Riku simply laughed, shaking his head, and Sora was the first to join, soon added was Kiru, and then as if in order, Kristi.

"I hate the human race." I growled, yanking away from the group and storming in another direction, crossing my arms over my chest, but I was followed close behind. The person, whoever they were, didn't speak, but I could hear the foot steps behind me, feel the gaze on my back.

I waited to acknowledge the presence until we were decently cut off from the rest of the group, "Look," I snarled, whirled around, and being surprised to find that it was Riku. My eyes narrowed immediately as my rage was re-sparked, "I don't approve being followed, to start with, and I don't know why the hell you insist on pissing me off after you've already landed yourself on my bad side."

"Calm down." He spoke easily.

"Calm down!" I repeated disbelievingly, my voice rising. "Calm down!" I stared as he began to stroll toward the shack underneath of the path to his battle island, you know, the one that used to have the save in it. "D-Don't walk away from me!" I cried, spraying sand behind me as I followed him inside.

I blinked in confusion as he disappeared from in front of me, and then whirled around as I heard the door close. My confusion grew to an overwelming quantity as I saw that it was Riku who had closed us in. "How did you" I gasped as he came upon me, pushing me into the wall, and pressed his lips to mine, taking advantage of the opening, and pushing my wrists up above my head as I tried to push him away. The moment I decided to cooperate he stepped back, chuckling. I decided that acting was my best bet at the momentnevermind that I'd just been french kissed by my obsession and I didn't have to pounce on him for it.

"How DARE you!" I roared, gathering myself and glaring daggers at him. He smirked, taking a step back toward me, and I backed away. "I NEVER gave you permission to- to" I silenced as he was upon me again, and this time I just went with it, taking a deep breath as we parted. He seemed somewhat less triumphant now. "...To do that." I finished quietly.

"That's because I didn't ask for permission." He responded, "I just take what I want." He let me go, and headed up the stairs as if nothing had happened.

I glared after him. "Well" He was out the door before I could think of something to respond with. I glared, "...I am so going to kick your ass on that race, Riku..." I hissed quietly, slumping against the wall where the save would have been. "And if I can't do it then I'll kick your ass with a stick."

Authors Notes: Well, hello my humble readers. (Just kidding, don't kill me! ) Please keep reading, and and, review! Flamers welcome! I don't care! I promise It'll divert my from my little romance in the next chappy! There is a plot! Really there is!


	2. Mimic

Chapter Two 

I returned to my cousin in a huff, though I found, quite to my satisfaction, that she'd managed to start a decent conversation with Kiru, something about mathmatical equations I had no comprehension of. (Need I mention that her IQ was a good 40 points above mine?) I could tell that if our intelligence was fourty points apart, Sora's was at least 100 away from hers, because he was staring in utter horror at the complicated things coming out of her mouth, his head spinning in his eyes. Kairi seemed to grasp some of it, (more than Sora) but she was as lost as I. She looked up at me, and smiling broadly. Well, at least she was having fun. "Feel better"  
I hesitated, but nodded, "I'm going to kill me a teenager, but other than that I'm fine." I frowned as Sora tilted his head at me, his pale blue eyes blinking.  
"Why"  
I glanced at him, and before I could think, I blurted, "because he's violent dolt who 'takes what he wants'." I snarled.  
Kristi blinked at me a couple of times, digesting, before she narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms. "What'd he do?" She asked flatly, her voice taking an altogether violent tone that even I didn't want to try.  
"He just"  
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Let me at him." She got up to go after him, and this time it was Kiru and I that were holding -her-. We ended up yanking her backwards, and all three of us hit the sand. Kiru started laughing, but Kristi wasn't finding the humor, still trying to get up as I pinned her wrist down, grumbling random curses under my breath.  
"This is the second time I've had to keep a stranger from killing my brother today." Kiru chuckled, "I thought Selene was the violent one"  
"You thought wrong." I hissed between curses, sighing with relief as Kristi stopped fighting. I lifted a hand to wipe some sweat off of my forehead, and gasped as she chose the exact right moment to get up and start running.  
"SHIT!" Kiru shouted climbing to his feet and nearly tackling her. I stayed back, and kept my hand at my forehead, shielding my eyes from the sunlight. I started laughing as he half ran past her, and then stood in her way. It wasn't long until they were both laughing, and Kristi gave up the 'fight'. Of course I knew it wasn't a -real- fight. If it was a -real- fight she'd've used karate or something on us. She was ten times stronger than I was (and yet I still had heroic moments.. odd, eh.  
However, as Riku returned to the group, the violence in her eyes turned real, and she whirled on him, standing dead in front of him. They were about the same height, I noted. I must've been at least a head shorter than both of them, and I was older than Kristi was.  
She poked him in the shoulder, backing him backwards a step from the group. "I challenge you." She hissed, "To a dual. No one -fucks- with my cousin." I took a step away, staring with round eyes. It was the first time I'd heard her say something worse than damn. Kiru seemed to sense this, and backed up with me, leaving the two standing face to face.  
Then, naturally, resentment kicked in. I didn't need my younger cousin to protect me! I stepped forward again, coming up beside her, "No," I sneered, "You'll fight me"  
Riku blinked at us as if we were insane. "...why"  
"Why!" Kristi retorted, "WHY"  
He looked utterly clueless, I noted. Something was wrong. "Because of what you did." I tried, watching his expression closely. You couldn't kid a kidder, and I was the greatest actress of my class.  
He -was- clueless. "...And what'd I do?" He asked bluntly, blinking at us. I looked down to the sand in thought, Kristi noting his confusion at about the same time as I did. She was anything but stupid.  
"Doppelganger?" I asked, turning to Kristi, but she shook her head slowly. I agreed, I didn't think there -were- doppelgangers in Kingdom Hearts. Course then, Kristi and I were never in the games either, and I didn't feel altogether human.  
"What's going on?" Riku asked, perplexed as he looked from person to person.  
Kiru stepped up, "Excuse me, I'd like to speak with you two." Kristi turned to him, blinking. Why was he being so polite now? They'd just got done debating over math... but still, glancing at me and with a silent agreement, we accepted the offer, following him as he led us away from the group.  
He led us for longer than what I seemed possible on Destiny Islands. I think he may've taken us around in a few circles, but in the end we entered a tree house at the top of the island that wasn't there in the game. He slipped casually inside, holding the curtain open for us as we followed him in. The first thing I did was to look at him curiously, but my gaze soon diverted to the other things in the small cabin.  
It was well decorated, considering that it's inhabitants consisted of a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year olds. Pictures decorated the walls, which were surprisingly solid considering that they were made out of tree branches glued together. There was little log furnature about the room, and a glass poupu fruit sculpture rested on the most solid looking of the tables.  
As Kiru let the curtain fall back in place, it cut out all but a sliver of light, making things barely visable to most, though I found that I could see just as well in the dark as I could in the light. Hmm.. interesting. I spotted a mirror, and, forgetting the cliffhanger information he was supposed to give us. I noted that my skin was quite a bit paler than it had been before, and even then I was paler than most vanilla ice cream. My brown hair had darkened to a black, and came now to my midwaist, a couple of shimering red strands livening it up a bit. My eyes were still the color of chocolate, but my pupils were bright crimson color that glowed. I had on a simple but tight fitting black tank top with a bra thankfully built into it, and a pair of capris that flared at the base, and was lined with a design of red thread. On my feet were a pair of combat boots, much easier to move in than the high heels I tended to wear.  
"Selene!" Kristi called, motioning for me to come over, and I obeyed, looking expectantly at Kiru as he glared at me.  
"What you came into contact with," He began, lighting a candle for light as Kristi dragged a chair up under her, and sat down, "was a mimic of sorts. It's a man we've had problems with for quite some time now"  
"Ansem?" I asked, naturally jumping to conclusions.  
"No," He answered dimly, "He has nothing to do with the heartless, or the game with which you seem familiar. He claims to be a follower of the light, but from what I've seen he's on his own side"  
"Who is he?" I asked impatiently, crossing my arms over my chest, and tapping my toe. I conveniently ignored the glare that both Kristi and Kiru sent me, and lifted an eyebrow expectantly, wondering whether he would answer me or not.  
"They call him Albedo." He hissed quietly.  
Ice joined Kristi's and my blood cells at the name. We knew the name well, from the game called Xenosaga, but... how... this was... Unless somehow the games were combined.  
Either way, the name spelled out more trouble than I would expect from any of the villains from any other game.

Authors Notes: Hello, all. read, Review, and flamers welcome, as always. Yeah, I realize it's a somewhat shorter chapter than I'm used to writing, and yeah, I didn't get around to kicking Riku's ass with a stick, but I'll get around to it. I had to add the plot first.


	3. Rapture

Chapter Three

Rapture

We slowed the gaming process at least a few hours as we contemplated the information we'd been given. We brainstormed over everything we knew about Albedo, which wasn't much, since it all came from the first Xenosaga game. We knew he was nuts, that was clear. Apparently he'd been infected by some entity they kept calling U-do, and was a key of some sort. A key to what, I had absolutely no clue, but a key none-the-less. He was extemely powerful, the only boss in the game that took me three tries to kill each time I faught him, and I doubted we'd be getting more than one chance now. He took hundreds of One Hundred Series Realians and took their memories just for the pleasure of their pain, and yet millions of other model realians still followed his every order. Doubtless that meant that he would have an army of false humans here, as well. But as far as I'd seen, Albedo couldn't change his form, however, one of the one hundred series realians did shift to look like one of the main characters at one point. Perhaps he'd sent one of them?

All the thinking made our heads hurt, and the strain of seeing through the dim light was beginning to sting Kristi's eyes, so as the sun began to sink behind the horizon, plunging the world into a similar darkness, we emerged, following the memorized trail of the way Kiru had brought us, walking past the constructed raft as we moved up to battle island where Riku, Kairi, Sora, and Kiru sat leisurely.

We joined them in relitive silence. Kristi stayed near the person she knew the best as was her tendancy, who happened to be Kiru. She sat on the edge of the island with him, half turned so she could see the others as well, but I had no problem sitting on the opposite edge of the island, and staring out at the distant horizon, contemplating everything that had happened in the past twelve hours alone. How could twelve weak hours change a person whole state of being? Everything was so dreadfully different to me that I could scarcely accept it until now. Yes, for years I'd prayed, and wished, and tried to become one with my video games, my movies, my -fantasies-... but now that I was here... now that I was so alone... so alone with my cousin in this world of mystery, and magic, and intrigue, this world of fathomless change... I wanted to go back to my predictable adress in California. I wanted to go back to the meaningless existance I lead.

And yet, somehow, I didn't. Everything here was just as it should have been. There was nothing beyond my grasp. There was nothing I could not demand. I was away, away from the pain, the meaningless, the effort go on just to meet the next day, the next nothingness. Here I had power beyond belief. I was not human, but I existed, if only in a plane of nonexistance.

It was a game of give and take, this. Give of your body, of everything you've ever known, and take of everything you had been forbidden.

Not, of course, that we had any choice what-so-ever in the matter. I just couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that maybe, just maybe, we did.

I sighed, not listening to the conversation behind me that my cousin took no part in. It was the one of what they would do when they left Destiny Islands. Apparently they'd lost their apprehension of discussing it in front of us, as neither of us took any particular interest in it. Why should we? We knew it'd be cut short anyway. However, we prefered to let them dream, and told them not what would come.

Still, when Kristi spoke up, I tuned myself in.

"So, Riku," She asked conversationally, leaning back to fix him with a thick stare, "When were we going to have that dual?"

Riku looked down at her, lifting an eyebrow curiously. "You were serious?" He asked fluidly, not bothering to uncross his arms as he gave her his attention. "I'm not doing any fighting tomorrow. We better do it now."

Sora began dumbly cheering as both people stood straight, and Kiru sighed in unison with Kairi as they resolved to simply get out of the way. Neither one of them wanted to get in the middle of what would go down in the next few moments, and honestly I couldn't blame them. Riku had been undefeatable in the game, I only hoped Kristi could handle him in reality, well, as much of reality as this dreamworld could be considered.

"Are you going to move?" Riku asked me bluntly, recrossing his arms commandingly.

I stared up at him, blinking innocently. I was as out of the way as I was going to get. "No." I stated calmly earning a sigh from him. However, he just shrugged with a dim 'whatever' before he tossed Kristi a thin wooden stick, holding his own over his head.

I noted that Kristi was better with her fists than a stick, though she out did Sora by a longshot. The two faught each other with a flurry of strikes, all of which neither party could especially well block. Finding the exchange useless, Riku backflipped to the edge of the island, and charged forward, stick flying, a move which Kristi dodged by leaping to the side, and digging her sneakers into the ground just before she fell off the island. She rolled to the side as he tried again, barely staying on the island that time. She brought her stick up as his thundered toward her, deflecting it as she performed the difficult to master technique arcanum on him, which, to my surprise, he combatted equally, rendering her to the ground.

I stood, and fluidly caught a stick thrown to me by Kiru, stepping up to his twin. He lifted an eyebrow as he lashed out at me, a move I darted out of the way of, slipping around behind him, and striking him on the back, knocking him forward. I took a step backwards, and spred my arms in silent taunt. He backflipped to the opposite edge of the island, and shot out at me as was his tradition. I lept over top of him, and in mid air, to my own surprise as well as to his, I turned, striking him with all my weight with the stick, throwing him flying into the water. Both my feet landed on the very edge of the island, and I put my arms out for balance this time, but it was futile, I toppled forward, landing ungracefully into the water, and creating a rather large splash that helped to thoroughly soak Riku, who'd managed to catch the ladder as he fell.

I could hear the others laughing above us as I floated back to the surface, and didn't bother climbing back up as Riku was doing. I was done for the night. I wanted to stay as far away as possible from them.

I'd always been a natural loner, but never had I had such loathing for anyone as I held for everyone now.

Authors notes: Really, really, REALLY short chapter, yeh, but I got around to kicking Riku's ass with a stick! And A message to the real Kristi, since in the first chapter she was a bit too helples... Better now? You kicked ass too! (just not as much as I did. )


End file.
